1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrical cable assembly, and more particularly to a high speed Serial Attached SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) (SAS) cable assembly.
2. Description of Related Art
Computers are widely used in the fields of E-commerce, E-business, Home network, Internet work station and so on. Each computer has a data storage center, e.g. hard disk, where computer software and business data information are saved. When the computer runs, the computer CPU (Central Processing Unit) continuously accesses the hard disk and retrieves data from the hard disk or stores data to the hard disk. For compatibility, the hard disk drive interfaces are standardized. There are many hard disk drive interface standards and the SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) families and ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) families are the most famous in the last decade.
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is a successor to the parallel SCSI and is based on serial technology. Besides the advantage of higher speed signal transmission, another most significant advantage is that the SAS interface will also be compatible with serial ATA (SATA) drives. The SAS receptacle connector has generally the same configuration as the SATA receptacle connector except that the two cavities of the SATA receptacle connector are merged in a large one, and a third set of signal contacts are assembled to a second side wall opposing a first side wall where two sets of contacts have already being assembled.
Generally, the SAS receptacle connector connects with other electronic equipment via a cable with wires terminated to the contacts thereof. An SAS cable end connector assembly comprises a housing, a plurality of contacts, a plurality of wires, and a cover over molded with the housing and the solder joints of the wires and the contacts. The contacts are disposed in opposite side walls of the housing with tail portions thereof projecting outside a rear end of the housing for soldering to corresponding wires. According to the SAS standard, the contacts comprise three sets of power contacts. Each set of power contacts consists of three power contacts and is adapted to be electrically connected with only one wire. However, it is difficult to correctly solder the specific three sets of miniature contacts and the freely movable wires together in an unsupported or unidentifiable condition. It is prone to solder the wire to an incorrect contact if the three sets of power contacts are not separated from other adjacent contacts. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a spacer to support and separate tail portions of the power contacts into several sets for easy identification during soldering. Further, during the over-molding process of the cover, the melted plastic material tends to seep into contact receiving passageways of the housing from rear end thereof, which will inevitably affect the quality of electrical connection between the cable end connector assembly and a mating connector.
Hence, a cable assembly having an improved spacer is desired to overcome the disadvantages of the related art.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a cable assembly having a spacer, which can facilitate identification of particular contacts during soldering to corresponding wires.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an electrical cable assembly in accordance with the present invention comprises an insulative housing, a plurality of contacts disposed in the housing, a plurality of wires respectively terminated to corresponding contacts, and a spacer attached to the insulative housing. The housing defines an elongated slot therein along a longitudinal direction. The contacts are arranged in two rows on two sides of the slot, and the tail portions thereof are exposed outside a rear face of the housing. The spacer has a longitudinal first side and an opposite second side, each side defining a plurality of grooves. The grooves provided in the first side have three different sizes in the longitudinal direction for receiving a different number of the tail portions therein. Thus the tail portions are soldered with the wires in a constrained, supported manner for avoiding mis-soldering and achieving good soldering effect.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.